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Naidu won’t be held till Oct 18 in Fibernet scam, Andhra govt tells SC
The Andhra Pradesh government said it would request the trial court to defer the proceedings there till Wednesday next week.
Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu will not be arrested till October 18 in an alleged corruption case involving a FiberNet project, the state government undertook before the Supreme Court on Friday.
After a bench of justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi asked the state to “stay its hands” until Naidu’s plea for anticipatory bail is effectively heard by it on October 17, the Andhra Pradesh government said it would request the trial court to defer the proceedings there till Wednesday next week.
Appearing for Naidu, senior advocate Sidharth Luthra had earlier pointed out that his plea for a pre-arrest bail would be rendered infructuous if the TDP chief is arrested pursuant to a prisoner transit (PT) warrant allowed by the trial court for October 16 in the FiberNet case.
The FiberNet case relates to an alleged tender manipulation in allotting a work order under Phase-1 of the AP FiberNet Project of ₹330 crore to a favoured company. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) alleged that irregularities took place from the allotting of the tender to the completion of the total project, causing a huge loss to the state exchequer.
According to a statement from the chief minister’s office, Naidu gave approval for the estimates of the project without any market survey done. “He used his influence to revoke the blacklisting on M/s Terasoftware and got the contract awarded to the company by silencing the protests from other bidders,” the statement said.
On Thursday, a special court allowed CID to issue a PT warrant against Naidu in the AP FiberNet case. The special ACB court also directed CID to produce Naidu before it on October 16. However, the court noted that any order from the top court in the interregnum would be binding on it.
Earlier this week, the Andhra Pradesh high court refused to protect Naidu from arrest in the alleged corruption case.
Naidu has been in judicial custody since September 9 following his arrest in an alleged skill development scam case. The top court is currently seized of his petition to quash the case.
